Scott, Sink say they can rein in gov't waste

BRANDON LARRABEE

Monday

Sep 27, 2010 at 3:10 AM

TALLAHASSEE -- In a year when antigovernment sentiment seems to be almost as deep as a willingness to turn out incumbents, the state's gubernatorial candidates are trying to sell voters on their ability to rein in waste.

Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Alex Sink have unveiled a slew of recommendations to trim or deeply slice government spending, leavened with a heavy dose of Tallahassee-bashing.

"As governor, I'll require accountability budgeting to force the bureaucrats in Tallahassee to justify every tax dollar they spend," Scott says in his "7-7-7" plan, a budgeting and economic blueprint that includes many of his reform ideas.

Sink, the state's elected chief financial officer, has also used the reform issue to remind voters that she is relatively new to the CFO position and the Capitol -- and, like Scott, has spent her own time in business.

"I've been in office for only four years, but that's long enough to know that Tallahassee needs real, common-sense reforms that deliver measurable results," Sink said in announcing her plan. "As governor, I'm going to use my private sector experience to enact real budget reform and hold government more accountable for our tax dollars."

Many of the reforms mirror a March 2010 report by a task force organized by Florida TaxWatch, a nonpartisan think tank. Sink was a member of the task force.

Scott's plan

Scott's plan includes a slate of limits on government spending, including rolling back the state and local government "expenditure burden" to 2004 levels.

"Unlike other spending limits, my plan changes the focus from how much government can spend to how much the economy can grow," Scott says.

Among Scott's promises are:

* He would overhaul the state budgeting process with initiatives he says would make the state's spending plan more transparent.

* He would move the state to a biennial budget process instead of the current annual budgeting, a change he says would allow for more evaluation and public participation in the process.

* He promises to overhaul pensions, a move he says would save $1.4 billion a year, by requiring new employees to match the state's contribution with 6 percent of their salaries.

* He would initiate a slate of reforms to prisons that would include requiring inmates to grow food, competitively bidding health-care contracts and making salaries for prison workers "competitive" and "market-based."

* Scott also plans for $500 million in operational efficiencies drawn from the TaxWatch report and another $300 million in savings from slashing the state's workforce by 5 percent.

Sink's plan

Sink proposes a slate of reforms to state purchasing and contracts that she says would rein in costs and create more transparency. Among her proposals are:

* She would eliminate some exemptions from competitive bidding -- saving $50 million to $125 million a year.

* She would consolidate management of the state's fleet of vehicles, get rid of unnecessary state property and cut back on state cell phone use as well as make better use of office supplies. Some Republicans have mocked these proposals as trying to rein in state spending by focusing on paper clips.

* She would create a "nonpartisan accountability office," similar to the federal Government Accountability Office. The organization would also work with local governments.

* She would increase transparency by requiring budgets to be written in "everyday language."

* She would use a process known as benchmarking to compare agencies' spending to other states and some private businesses; TaxWatch estimated that could have saved $137.7 million in the current state fiscal year, which runs through June 30, and a "substantial but indeterminate" amount in future years.

* While Sink hasn't outlined broad cuts to the state workforce -- noting that Florida already has the lowest ratio of state workers to residents in the nation -- she does propose reducing the number of middle managers until there are seven state employees for each manager. Sink says the move would save $300 million.

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